Land lease agreement — जग्गा भाडा सम्झौता

The plot, exactly as the ownership certificate (लालपुर्जा) records it. District, municipality, ward, kitta number and area, and the four boundaries (चार किल्ला) if they help.

What it is let for. Farming, a house or shed, a business, parking or storage. The lessee may use it only for that, and may not change the land itself — cutting, filling, or selling its soil or stone — without consent.

The period. A start date and a number of years.

The rent. How much, a month or a year, when it is due and how it is paid, any deposit, and how it rises.

What happens to what the lessee builds or plants when the lease ends: removed, bought by the landowner, or left with the land.

Who pays the land revenue (मालपोत) and any rent tax, and how much notice either side gives to end it early.

Land is leased under the contracts of lease in Part 5, Chapter 12 of the National Civil (Code) Act 2074. The points that matter most:

It must be written, and registered if it runs past ten years. A lease of immovable property is made in writing, and one for more than ten years is registered with the office authorised for it — the land revenue office (section 620).

There is a longest term. Twenty years for farmland; nineteen for other house and land; thirty-five for land leased to build housing on; forty for infrastructure such as an industry, a road or a power plant. The parties may extend it (section 617).

Rent has a default date. If the agreement does not say, rent on farmland, or on land leased for housing or industry, is due within fifteen days of the end of each fiscal year (section 616).

A disaster reduces the rent. If flood, landslide, earthquake, a fire the lessee did not cause, or a similar event spoils the land, the lessee is not liable for it, and the rent is reduced in proportion (section 615).

Arrears can end it. The landowner may end the lease if the rent is ninety days overdue, or if the land is sub-let without consent (section 621). The land goes back within thirty-five days of the lease ending (section 619).

What the lessee builds is the lessee's to take away when the lease ends, unless the agreement says otherwise; the landowner may keep it by paying an agreed price (section 620).

Foreigners need permission. Land cannot be leased for farming, building or land development to someone who cannot own land in Nepal without the Government's consent (section 620).

If what is let is a house, a storey, a flat, a room, or the land a house stands on, it is house rent, and the Civil Code's house rent chapter applies instead (section 383). Use the house rent agreement for that.

Its rules are different: a written agreement is required once the rent passes Rs 20,000 a month, with the tenant's photograph and at least two witnesses for each side (section 386), and a rent of more than Rs 1,00,000 a month has to be registered (section 464).

Municipalities tax rent income — the घर जग्गा बहाल कर — and each sets its own rate and how it is filed, which is why several publish their own rental agreement forms. Ask your ward or municipality what it charges and whether it wants a copy of the agreement.

The law does not say who must pay it; the agreement should. The form here asks, and prints the answer.

1. Enter the landowner and the person leasing the land, each with address and citizenship number.
2. Copy the land from the ownership certificate: district, municipality, ward, kitta number and area, then the four boundaries.
3. Choose what the land is let for, the start date and the number of years, then the rent, a month or a year, when it is due and any deposit or increase.
4. Say what happens to anything the lessee builds, who pays the land revenue and rent tax, and the notice to end it early.
5. Add the witnesses and choose Nepali or English. Download it as a PDF, or as a Word file you can still edit. It is free, there is no sign-up, and nothing you type is uploaded.